Much wet. Very Prague.

It's Wednesday and I'm back in business after my disaster of posting a day late last week.

My Friday was great, basking in glorious sunshine at Old Trafford Cricket Ground as England battered Pakistan thanks to centuries from Alastair Cook and Joe Root. Somehow our beer snake that stretched halfway up the stand didn't make it onto Sky Sports, and I emerged with the darkest knees I've ever had.

The weekend was full of cricket from morning to evening on both days, during which I played some of my best individual cricket but came off losing in both matches. On Saturday we were rolled by the best bowler I've ever faced in a match. He took 6 wickets and I had no idea where I was going to score runs off him, but I managed to survive and post 27* in my longest ever innings lasting 124 balls having gone in at 0-3 and batted to the end. On Sunday I made 42 and took 4 wickets but we still managed to lose one of the closest matches I've been a part of.

Since Monday I've been in Prague, where we've been exploring an amazing city, drinking great beer and learning about another perspective of WWII. We've got two days left and are going HEAVY tonight. As you can see below, I'm still LOVING it despite the Manchester-esque weather (photo credit: Harry Vogt).

Hopefully next week I'll be able to report a good end to this holiday and two wins in cricket this weekend!

Ollie :)

Twitter: @Chowerz

Instagram: @chowerz

#ThatMomentWhen...

...you realise, one day late, that you didn't blog on the day you were supposed to! D'oh!

If we look past my inability to blog on the correct day whilst on holiday, then I'll get you started with what happened last Thursday. It was my last day of my first NCS wave and it went rather well, bar a hiccup in the middle of the day. The teams were all out doing their campaigns to raise awareness for whatever they had chosen, with my team's target being the WWI/WWII memorial site at Boggart Hole Clough that we'd done a stunning job on the day before. After that, it was time for a final review session and debrief before it was time to go. Some people left the building as soon as it was announced that they could leave, although most chose to stay behind to say goodbye to as many as they could. Once the place was tidied, the staff team were out for our final Wetherspoons trip before going our separate ways - a good way to end 4 great weeks!

I'm not entirely sure what I did last Friday. I feel like I didn't get as much sleep as I anticipated and spent quite a bit of time in front of the TV, Xbox or piano. Either way, it must've been extremely uneventful.

Talking of uneventful, I played cricket on both days over the weekend and fielded for 87.4 of the most boring overs I've ever seen. On Saturday, we restricted our opponents to 158-8 from 50 overs before knocking it off very comfortably. On Sunday, we bowled them out for 80 from 37.4 overs and chased it down comfortably again. The most interesting thing that happened must've been when an opposing batsman on Sunday pulled his hamstring trying to run a quick single off my bowling. I got the ball from mid-on but heard a body hitting the ground and an exclamation, stopping me from knocking the bails off and appealing for a run out. Unfortunately for the batsman it led to him retiring hurt - thankfully for us, it was the only player who'd resisted against our bowling attack!

This week hasn't been the most eventful either. It's been filled with plenty of ironing and a bit of shopping to get ready for a trip to Prague next Monday! Apart from that, I've been to cricket training and a referee mentor meeting. And that's about it!

Hopefully there'll be some sort of Wi-Fi at our hotel next week so I can blog on Wednesday!

Ollie :)
Twitter: @Chowerz
Instagram: @chowerz

It's almost over!

I'm writing this really late and caught in a bit of a twist. Half of me wants to go to bed ASAP and half of me wants to get this blog done today so that I'll keep up the consistent Wednesday blogs. I guess we'll wait and see how it goes!

The back end of last week was as hectic as NCS has ever been, and ended with us saying goodbye to our Programme Leader after three weeks. Come Saturday it was all about my dad's 50th birthday party - I got a trim before checking myself into the hotel where the party was being held, and where we were staying for the night. Before the party I managed to squeeze in a Costa trip with a couple of mates, which was a nice catch up.

The party itself was very good. Friends and family from all over (the North West) came to celebrate and we managed to set a personal best in alcohol consumption for my brother - a very decent 5 pints for him!

The next day I managed to bust the myth that "everybody plays [cricket] better hungover" as I made a standard captain's contribution of 1 run, 0 wickets and numerous misfields. However, the team did win and so did Andy Murray so it wasn't a bad day at all!

I've now had three out of my last four days of NCS, with the last day coming tomorrow! Today my team were at Boggart Hole Clough tidying the war memorial there, which now looks fab (pictures below)! I'm proud of what they've done and hoping they can finish their programme on a high tomorrow.

Here's to a good end to a great four weeks!

Ollie :)
Twitter: @Chowerz
Instagram: @chowerz

I am KNACKERED.

The last week has been one of the busiest of my life.

If the first week of NCS could be summarised as the "honeymoon period", week 2 (and the start of week 3) have been full on, non-stop and flashed by at 100mph. Week 2 was spent at student accommodation in Manchester, with a 6:50am wake up and my free time limited to about half an hour a day, once all the participants were in bed and we'd had our daily staff laughing session, i.e. funny story sharing time. A solid six and a half hours of sleep each day followed by activities for about 12 hours, with about an hour of total break time in the day. Put simply, it was hard work! I had a laugh with a colleague last night about our 'real' hourly pay...let's just say we were laughing pretty hard!

Despite the long days and short nights, it has been another really good week. If you ignore the day spent locked in an oxygen-starved room, I was really impressed with how my team behaved and interacted during our community visits. Moreover, our presentation showcase was really enjoyable and I made sure my team knew that I was proud of their 'gameshow' performance.

The highlight had to be when, after I suggested that the two teams enter the stage with music playing in the background, we went for our full rehearsal. I knew that one of the teams were using Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" but I had no idea how they would walk down the aisle. I turned to watch and saw the guy in that team with his arms linked with the girls in his team and was almost on the floor laughing. They pulled it off again for the real thing and it was a brilliant start to the show.

My day off was spent getting ready for my dad's 50th at the weekend and taking a day's rest before the continuation of NCS...of which the first day this week, Tuesday, was horrendous for traffic. I spent about 3 hours travelling and felt like I caught up with the last month of pop music! Gotta say, it got me into Adele's new album, which is much better than I expected! The song "Send My Love (To Your New Lover)" feels like Adele's voice on a Florence and The Machine track - I've had it on repeat for a few days now!

I've been so busy with working that my free time has basically disintegrated. But I think it's definitely worth it.

Ollie
Twitter: @Chowerz
Instagram: @chowerz